For about two years, my site,
www.drakkonsoft.com has just been selling the screenplay writing software I wrote. I had always intended to have other products, like a 3D game or engine, or 3d modeling software.
Before I get into any project ideas, I want to make it clear that I don't have a lot of time to code anymore, given my class schedule, and probably will even stay here at school for a good chunk of the summer to take a chem course that I never took (but should have), and a vector/tensor analysis class that I really want to take but can't fit into my schedule.
Anyway, I'm looking for a team to work on some additional projects, to expand Drakkon Software Productions (I am currently registered in Illinois as a sole proprietorship).
First off, I'd like to explain some of my ideas, from which we could chose one, although I'm open to other suggestions as well.
1. I wrote a large portion of a DX9 3D engine in C# over a year ago that I never finished. Anyone willing to work on this would have to be able to do 3D programming without TrueVision, and know one of the .Net languages.
Currently it supports
1. Full scene hierarchy, with one command rendering for all visuals
2. Frames, like in D3DRM (pretty cool, with unlimited parent/child relationships)
3. A generic "visuals" class, which includes particle systems, billboards, meshes, etc.
4. Environment mapping
5. Animated textures, which can be used even without the engine
6. A very good camera class.
7. Portals/wormholes (a cool effect, but a lot of cards don't support it in hardware)
8. Shadows (like in the D3D tutorials, so they get screwed up if you step under the object making the shadow).
9. Sprites
10. Started implementation of shaders
11. Started implementation of ability to draw 2D sprites of any size/dimension, but doesn't work when anti-aliasing is turned on - not sure if this can actually be fixed.
I'd preferr to start from scratch, though, and since this project wouldn't use TrueVision at all, I realize there may not be too many people who can help with it.
2. Any type of 3D game - preferably space combat. I was working on one a few years ago in TrueVision (I also highly relied on engine components that I had written, like the camera, and a different kind of billboards. . . and lasers. . .), but never finished it. Sadly, it stopped working for no apparent reason a little over a year ago. Maybe it had something to do with DX9.
3. 3D modeling software - go nuts on this one. I've never tried anything like that, before, though.
4. Anything else cool.
I'd preferr to do anything in .NET, with heavy emphasis on C#, but VB 6.0 is acceptable as well. The only reason I'd shy away from VB 6.0 (love the language, though) is because it doesn't handle objects *nearly* as well as .NET. I'd preferr C#, because according to tests *I've* personally run, it handles certain mathematical operations much faster than VB.NET - in fact, I can even get VB 6.0 to beat .NET in that department. Also, even with TrueVision, I have a few components of my C# engine that I think might be usefull in a project.
Anyway, like I said, I won't have a whole lot of time to code, so here's what I'd like to do:
1. Figure out the implementation - that means designing a large part of the engine, deciding how the project is going to work, and how it needs to be made.
2. Coordinate the project - decide who does what, have the final work on what's in or out.
3. Help solve problems in actually writing the software.
4. Figure out how to do any revolutionary or very difficult aspects of the project - I'm very good with math, physics, and 3D. I could probably come up with some cool things that have never been done before.
5. Offer the benefits of my experience in working on 3D games and engines in the past.
6. Provide the web hosting and legitimate company name for the finished product.
7. Do most of the marketing of the finished product.
6. Some (although a minimal amount of) coding.
8. Once the project is far enough along, some of the 3d modeling and textures (unless we can find someone else to do it
I just have experience with this, so I'll do it if no one else can - for the early stages, though, we can just use dummy models and textures - i.e. some crummy stuff that one of us makes up quickly).
If anyone is interesting in helping form a team, let me know. I'm most interested in numbers 2 or 4 from my project ideas list (a space combat game, or anything else cool that you can think of).
Edit: One more idea I had, which I've toyed around with in the past - a program for making 3D games, kind of like Klick&Play or Multimedia Fusion, but 3D.
